Willie Mitchell takes Darryl Sutter’s criticism in stride

After he watched the Kings give up two power-play goals in the first period Saturday against the Nashville Predators, after he saw their penalty-killing unit surrender at least one goal for the sixth consecutive game, coach Darryl Sutter decided to say something.

Sutter singled out Matt Greene and Willie Mitchell, two veteran defensemen, for criticism. Sutter essentially said the two did nothing to aid the Kings while they were shorthanded during the first period of a 4-3 loss to the Predators.

“That’s Darryl being Darryl,” Mitchell said after Wednesday’s practice in El Segundo.

Mitchell smiled when he spoke. Clearly, he’s used to the coach’s public criticism by now.

“We take a lot of pride in the penalty-kill,” Mitchell said, adopting a more serious tone. “That’s my label as a player, being a really good penalty-killer. If the penalty-kill doesn’t do well, of course, you take that personally. ... I think our penalty-kill should be top-5 in the league.”

After a four-game stretch in which the Kings did not give up a power-play goal, they’ve hit a skid that’s dropped them into 22nd place in the NHL, as of Wednesday morning. They are 50 of 63 on the penalty-kill for a rather pedestrian 79.4 percent success rate after 15 games.

“We have great penalty-killers up front when we’re all healthy,” Mitchell continued. “We have great penalty-killers on the back end. We’ve got a world-class goaltender and we all have that belief that we should be that good. When we go out there that’s our mindset.

“We were on a really good run there early in the year, then we had a hiccup where we had a game where I don’t think our fundamentals got off too much, but three goals were three goals. After that, I guess we haven’t played with a swagger out on the penalty-kill like maybe we should have.”

Mitchell referred to the Kings’ 3-2 loss Oct. 21 to the Calgary Flames, with all three goals coming while the opposition was on the power play. The Kings gave up the go-ahead goal while center Anze Kopitar, their best penalty-killer, was in the penalty box for hooking late in the game.

“Sometimes you start thinking about it,” Mitchell said. “Sometimes you do stuff that’s a little too much. Sometimes less is more in this game. I’m not saying less intensity. I’m saying less running around, less trying to do too much.

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“We’ve been focusing what we do as a group and less on what other teams are doing as a group, because the penalty-kill has been really good here the last two, three, four years. Mostly it’s teams coming here worrying about how we penalty-kill instead of us worrying about their power play.”

Around the rink

Greene did not join his teammates for their practice, and he is not expected to play tonight against the Buffalo Sabres because of an undisclosed injury. ... Right wing Justin Williams returned to the practice rink one day after Sutter sent him to the dressing room midway through the workout because he couldn’t keep pace. Williams skated on a line with center Anze Kopitar and left wing Dustin Brown. Their line was broken up for Saturday’s game against the Nashville Predators. ... Center Jarret Stoll continued to be sidelined by an unspecified upper-body injury. He was injured Saturday.